Mexico, 10-man Costa Rica tied at half

Mexico and Costa Rica are scoreless at the half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal at Reliant Stadium on Sunday.

Costa Rica, the reigning Central American champions, finished the half with 10 men after referee Terry Vaughn showed midfielder Allan Aleman his second yellow card of the match for an automatic ejection. The second card stemmed from Aleman’s protest after Jervis Drummond got a hard tackle and no card was shown to the Mexican player.

Mexico, a four-time winner of the tournament that crowns the champion of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, struggled to impose his game for much of the match against an underdog with a solid defensive line and playing the counterattack with just one forward.

Neither team conceived a clear scoring chance in the half.

The winner of today’s match plays the winner of the Honduras-Guadeloupe quarterfinal that follows Mexico-Costa Rica.